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Kinross 21 Broughton 15
 Broughton
travelled across the Forth Road Bridge for their first match in 3 weeks and
the dust was just about off the cobwebs as the warm up finished.
There was a return to the squad for
player-coach Neil Matthews and Mark Brown, with Paul Maddison putting on his
boots to take up the final bench spot.
The 'sick and unavailable' list increases
weekly however there is no truth in the rumour that we will be submitting
next week's teamsheet on the back of Gerry's empty B&H packet.
So, on with the show. The SRU's
midweek announcement on Discipline - Zero Tolerance meant that the Ref was
possibly on the look out to be a martyr to the cause with an Assessor
casting a watchful eye over him and at one stage helping the official by
identifying a Broughton player who was a split second late with a challenge.
But alas the game started on the heavily
churned up pitch and it took Broughton less than 60 seconds to open their
account. A maul in midfield was overturned and a daring run by
Williams helped secure the ball for Dickson to take the ball to within a
metre of the Kinross line. Arrandale was first to the base of the ruck
and his quick distribution to Struan Smith meant an easy first try for the
'twin' against his birth town club. Payne missed the conversion.
Kinross battled to get back into the came
and were close in the 9th minute when Payne missed touch with a penalty and
the Kinross backs forced a couple of Broughton errors however they could not
capitalise and the danger was cleared effectively. The ball was then
stolen in loose play inside the Kinross half and the Broughton rolling maul
travelled some 25 metres after clever play by Edwards and it was Turtle who
bundled over from close range for a score. Payne was unsuccessful in
his attempt to add the extras. 0-10.
The hosts opened their account shortly
after when the were awarded a penalty on the Broughton 22 for a handling on
the ground offence. 3-10.
The game came back to life in the 33rd
minute following the apparently harsh sin-binning of Dickson who was alleged
to have been offside at a ruck despite the scrum half having looked like he
had his hands on the ball. His plight had not been helped a few
minutes before when the Assessor brought to the whistler's attention that
Dickson had made a split second late challenge on a Kinross player which
left him prostrate on the ground heavily winded.
The resultant penalty was converted and
with 3 minutes til the interval, Kinross pressure paid off once again as
Broughton were caught offside and the uprights were split by another well
taken kick to make it 9-10 at half-time.
Bad light looked like it could have taken
it's toll on proceedings and the quick thinking of the Kinross committee man
to turn on the lights meant that the match could continue.
Payne had an early chance to increase the
lead after the break from a penalty on the half-way line but the kick didn't
have the legs.
Kinross took the lead on 57 minutes for
the first time in the match in controversial circumstances. A rolling
maul deep inside the Broughton half looked to have stopped and started a
couple of times and as it edged over the line, the ball looked to squirm out
but was regained on the ground by a delighted (if perhaps not slightly
surprised) Kinross player. The referee waited til the mass of bodies
got up before awarding the score, much to the disenchantment in the
Broughton ranks. Indeed, the pressure got to your scribe and the ref
nearly threw the dummy and asked that there be no talking from the
sidelines. 14-10.
Smith (Struan, not Stan) doubled his
Broughton tally of tries to 2 in the 65th minute when he chased his kick
through and his one on one run in with the Kinross full back resulted in
both players colliding in the dead ball area but it was the Broughton man
who got up first to get his hands on the ball. 14-15.
Broughton may well have sealed the
victory with 5 minutes to go, when Payne ripped the ball free in midfield
and whilst most of the players seemed to stop awaiting for the ref to blow
for an infringement he looked to put Smith on for his hat-trick, however,
just as he was about to release the pass, he was tackled and the ball popped
out of his grasp and went forward.
As the game went into injury time and the
journey back to Edinburgh looking like a happy one, Broughton were guilty of
failing to clear their lines effectively and they lost the ball in open
play. The home side knew that time wasn't on their side and kept the
ball alive with some useful handling which saw the ball come out to the
winger who evaded a couple of challenges to run in under the posts to regain
the lead and steal the points. The conversion was a formality and
despite having one final throw at the dice, Broughton could not claw back
the deficit at the death. Final Score, Kinross 21 - 15
Broughton.
Next week, we hope to be less generous
against local rivals Leith down at Academy Park. A win is vital to
prevent us from being leapfrogged by them.
It would be nice to see as many Club
Members as possible make it down to watch - the extra man that is the crowd
can be the vital link!
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